Chapter 32
by Veronica (Mullaly) Pearson
My sister Kelly was everything to me. Seven years older and wise beyond her years, she was my best friend, my confidante, my mentor, my rock, my second mom. I was a latchkey kid growing up, so Kelly stepped in to fill my mother’s shoes when she was at work. She cooked for me, helped me with my homework, listened to my complaints, dried my tears, told me stories, and shared many a laugh with me. Smart, funny, sometimes snarky, and always selfless, she would go above and beyond to make people happy. She lived, I think, to put a smile on everyone’s face. I know she did on mine and my kids’ too. She moved into our in-law apartment when my daughter Zoey was just three months old, with my son Steven being born two years later. She was a preschool teacher and a natural with kids. She didn’t have any children of her own so mine became hers and she loved them unconditionally. My children loved their auntie dearly.
She became sick four years after she moved in with us. It was shortly after Mother’s Day in 2014 when she was diagnosed with gallbladder cancer. She didn’t tell us how bad it was as she put up the good fight, even during the worst of the bad days. As she began to slow down, I upped my game, taking care of her like she did for me all those years when we were growing up. I became her everything as our roles reversed. I cooked, cleaned, shopped, brought her to and from the doctors, and later took her to the hospital. During the last ten months we were together, the cancer had spread to her lungs and throughout her bones, causing unspeakable pain that she kept to herself.
She lost her fight in March 2016, a few days after suffering a massive stroke. Her doctors told us there was nothing more we could do. I lost a huge part of me that day and couldn’t imagine life without her. But I also worried that I hadn’t done enough for her, that maybe there was something I should have, could have, done for her that I neglected to do. My heart was very heavy with worry and sadness.
Then one day I happened to be watching Roland’s live Facebook show, in which he talked about his Purple Papers and shared messages that were waiting to be delivered.
There was a message for me that day from her. Roland actually said my name as he delivered my sister’s words: “Veronica, I have a message for you from your sister.” That really caught my attention! Her message was channeled over the airways and the internet and down from the heavens right to me, and then again on a Purple Paper message that lifted the immense weight I was carrying and allowed me to breathe again.
Dated April 17, 2016, the Purple Paper reads, “Kelly wants you to know that the struggle is finally over. Even though, because of my age, I passed young, I had a good life. Tell Mom. I’m with her all the time. Hey Sis!!!!! Hey Mom!!! You should see me now!” The drawings on the paper were equally telling as they included a sketch of the doctor’s office, the hospital, and home. There were three hearts embracing the home, indicating the love we all share.
My sister still checks on me, visiting in my dreams and in sudden temperature changes that alert me to her presence. Thanks to the Purple Paper message, I know she’s OK now, and she knows that I am too.